College Sports Blog

Soundbites: Texas Tech’s attention turns to Big 12 play

Texas Tech wrapped up its non-conference schedule Saturday with a 49-14 win against New Mexico.

Almost immediately after the game, attention began to shift to a pivotal game against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, in two weeks. Here’s what the Red Raiders had to say about the New Mexico win and their thoughts entering Big 12 Conference play:

Quarterback Seth Doege said the Red Raiders are already focusing on Iowa State after two embarrassing losses to the Cyclones in consecutive years

“It’s not even Iowa State, it’s the fact that we’re going into Big 12 Conference play,” Doege said. “I think the guys are very motivated. We’ve been talking about through the spring and summer and now fall that our main goal is to win a Big 12 Championship. The season starts two weeks from now, so it’s definitely something that we need to get prepared for.

“It’s a different ballgame once you start conference. Everybody’s getting confidence. We just need to continue to get better as a team through practice and prepare well and be ready to go.”

Middle linebacker Will Smith said the defense is improving week by week

“I do feel that we’re getting better each week,” Smith said. “I feel like we haven’t hit our peak yet. But I feel like we’re on the way to get there. I would say by the first (conference) game, we should be pretty close to hitting it.”

Head coach Tommy Tuberville said the team has surpassed expectations through three games

“It couldn’t have been much better,” he said. “We played well in a lot of areas. If you look at the offense, we’ve only punted two times in three games. We played good in the red zone.”

Tuberville discussed the decision to play true freshman and U.S. Army All-American Michael Starts who recorded two tackles and a sack

“We needed five defensive linemen,” he said. “We’ve been thinking about it, and we needed five down linemen inside, somebody that could give us some push. A strong double team and they can’t move out of the way. We got to the point where we were trying to fool ourselves into thinking that we got four guys that we feel like can play in this league. Well that’s great, but we can’t count on four guys making it for nine games straight.”

Doege, who threw for six touchdowns, said Big 12 teams have to worry about Texas Tech’s running game as well after 325 rushing yards against New Mexico

“Just the fact that it’s good to get that on film just because now teams really have to respect our running game,” he said. “It’s gotten a lot better, and it goes back, again, to how good our offensive line is really playing right now. They’re playing physical. They’re playing fast, and our running backs are very talented. It’s just another part of our offense that you have to respect now, other than our passing attack.”